This was a mission that’s been a long time coming mainly due to a lack of instructions, the task was to put up a metal shed for Mr J.

Jacqueline remarked soon after starting ‘It looks as though it is going to be quick straightforward …’ Alas, If The Truth Be Told, this was not the case, as design was based around the ease of manufacturing, storage and transport rather than the ease of building. At one point there seemed to be a good chance of breaking the Lewisham record for mission length of 5 hours 20 minutes. However, we decided to call it a day inside that, but before we got the roof on.

We told Mr J that it would just be A Matter of Time before The Heroes would be back to finish off the job.

Apologies to anyone reading this who is unaware of the discography of the indie band Shed Seven, there are several song and album references.

I don’t think that I have ever spent as long on a task. A couple of months ago I had sorted out the base for Mr J’s shed that he’d bought several months earlier. The report was littered with Shed Seven (an indie band from York) song titles ….

Alas he’d left the boxes outside (there was No Room in my House) and the instructions turned into papier mâché. Attempts at drying out and ironing failed miserably. E mails to the supplier, B&Q, GG Mission Control and on line searches followed. I even ran to my local B&Q but all to no avail.

My final Cry for Help to B&Q gave me details of the manufacturer and on their website found the instructions. I am about to try to put it together with fellow Lewisham GGer, Jacqueline, who has been on Standby for weeks.

I’d no idea what to expect when I opened the box that Ms L had had delivered with a small table to be constructed. I feared the worst when the instructions showed pictures of a drill, hammer and tape measure. Fortunately none were needed and it all fitted together quite quickly. I spent longer chatting with Ms L about looking for work than I did with the table.

I was there rice and early for my weekly pick up from Feed the Hill for Ms L, but there were still a dozen or so ahead of me in the queue - it’s a depressing sign of the times… It was the usual mix that she wanted - as many fruit and vegetables as possible, plus the store cupboard standbys of rice, pasta and tinned tomatoes. I waited around for a few minutes for the cooked food - it was risotto today. As always, Ms L was delighted with what I brought back.

…. back to Ms Y. There was the return of a n occasional visitor to the lovely Ms Y’s shopping list McVities Chocolate Digestive’s, prompted by their centenary. They were on offer and were one of my Co-Op members’ discounts this week; so she was especially pleased. A long chat afterwards as I hadn’t seen her last week.

A new item on Mr J’s shopping list was kingfish, which I had never come across before - they seem to be a large variety of mackerel but they were very expensive and frozen, so it was the standard purchase from the fishmongers of fresh mackerel.

There were two kingfishers though - a real one on the Ravensbourne on the walk through the park to Mr J’s and his GP’s where I dropped off something for him.